WOW: Emperor Palpatine Comes to X-Wing!
You don’t know the power of the Dark Side! The Emperor is going to shake up X-Wing upon his arrival with the Imperial Raider. Come see!
First up, Palpatine comes included with the Imminent Imperial Raider expansion. Now take a look at his card:
Emperor Palpatine arrives to X-Wing as a crew upgrade in the Imperial Raider Expansion Pack.
As you might expect, the Emperor isn’t like your standard Imperial crew member. First of all, he’s the most expensive crew upgrade currently in the game. Second, he requires two crew slots all to himself. Nonetheless, in the right Imperial build, Emperor Palpatine is well worth his squad-point cost:
Advertisement“Once per round, you may change a friendly ship’s die result to any other die result. That die result cannot be modified again.”
In X-Wing, each of your ships has, effectively, four concerns each round: maneuvering, performing actions, attacking, and defending. Of these, two require you to roll dice. Viewed in this light, the Emperor’s ability to change any dice of your dice results grants you an unprecendented measure of control over nearly one-half of the game. Convert a blank attack die to a critical hit. Convert a blank defense die to an evade. Did your TIE fighter accidentally clip an asteroid? The Emperor can ensure that you don’t suffer damage as a result. Did you suffer a crippling critical hit? The Emperor can easily resolve a Weapon Malfunction or shield you from the brunt of a Minor Explosion .
Also, notice the range restriction – there isn’t one. His ability isn’t limited to friendly ships at Range “1,” nor to those within Range “1–3.” He can alter the result of any of your dice results, anywhere on the table. Thus, even though you can currently fly him only on a Lambda-class shuttle, a VT-49 Decimator, or your Raider-class corvette, his ability can impact any of your ships, wherever it’s located, and when you need it most.
Should you want to bring the galaxy’s most powerful dark side Force user to the battlefield, you’ll find plenty of uses for him in both Standard Play and Epic Play.
What Palpatine does is mitigate bad luck, (or give you some good luck). He is going to be most useful in avoiding those incredibly bas luck scenarios when the other guy pulls off some insane roll and kills a critical ship of yours, or escapes what should be certain death. Now the Emperor can make sure that unexpected total evasion-fail instead lets your ship survive, or when your pilots NEED to get that one hit, they can. For the weapon system, or powers that activate upon criticals, or other particular die results, he is going to add a lot of certainly into your attacks.
His cost at 8pts may actually be worth it and his unique use of two passenger slots is pretty flavorful. I guess the Emperor packs a LOT of luggage (and boot-licking toadies).
I’m already thinking of all the dirty tricks and lists this is going to help. Throw your sneaky ideas in the comments!
